Prisoners’ gang-related activity: the importance of bullying and moral disengagement

Gang-related activity can have a significant impact on the effective management of prisons in the UK, yet little is known about the characteristics of the prisoners involved. I it this study, 141 adult male prisoners' gang-related activity was examined in relation to their bullying behaviour and use of moral disengagement. Results showed that prisoners most involved in gang-related activity were likely to have spent a longer total time in the prison system, be perpetrators of bullying and have high levels of moral disengagement. Findings also show that moral disengagement partially mediates the relationship between bullying and gang-related activity Implications for treatment programmes and the prison estate are discussed

Non-Fermi liquid fixed point for an imbalanced gas of fermions in 1+ϵ1+\epsilon dimensions

We consider a gas of two species of fermions with population imbalance. Using the renormalization group in $d=1+\epsilon$ dimensions, we show that for spinless fermions and $\epsilon > 0$ a fixed point appears at finite attractive coupling where the quasiparticle residue vanishes, and identify this with the transition to Larkin--Ovchinnikov--Fulde--Ferrell order (inhomogeneous superconductivity). When the two species of fermions also carry spin degrees of freedom we find a fixed point indicating a transition to spin density wave order.Comment: 4 pages and 4 figure

Effects of green manure crops on short-term nitrogen availability in organic sweet corn systems : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Applied Science in Soil Science

In the Gisborne Region of New Zealand (NZ) many organic sweet corn growers use a range of winter green manure crops as a means of maintaining and improving soil fertility, particularly the availability of soil N. Some debate exists as to the most suitable green manure crops and their effectiveness at improving short-term N availability for subsequent sweet corn crops. Two field trials were conducted in the Gisborne Region to assess the effectiveness of four winter green manure crops using a subsequent sweet corn crop to evaluate N availability. Two sites, Site-A at Tekaraka and Site-B at Tolaga Bay, with BIO-GROW NZ organic certification were used in this study. A Latin Square trial design was used at each site consisting of 25 plots made up of five replicates of each of the following five treatments: control (bare soil), blue lupin (Lupinus angustifolus), mustard (Brassica sp.), mustard/blue lupin mix and annual ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum). Just prior to the soil incorporation of green manure treatments (early-mid September 1997), the lupin crop had the highest N concentration and N accumulation levels of 2.1% N and 156 kg N ha-1, respectively, at Site-A and 2.1% N and 173 kg N ha-1, respectively at Site-B. Soil incorporation of green manure treatments significantly influenced soil (0-150 mm) mineral N (nitrate and ammonium) levels measured at sweet corn emergence (30 November 1997) and at 51/2 weeks post emergence. At sweet corn emergence the lupin, mustard/lupin mix, mustard, control and ryegrass treatments resulted in soil mineral N values of 68, 66, 57, 51 and 29 kg.N.ha-1, respectively, at Site-A and 118, 118, 91, 81 and 54 kg.N.ha-1, respectively, at Site B. At both sites, the lupin and mustard/lupin mix treatments resulted in soil mineral N levels significantly higher than the control treatment. In contrast, the ryegrass treatment resulted in soil mineral N levels significantly lower than the control treatment. These treatment effects were related to green manure crop N concentrations just prior to soil incorporation. On average over both sites, the lupin and mustard/lupin mix treatments, which had high DM yields (7900 kg and 6500 kg.DM.ha-1 respectively), had the highest N concentrations (2.0% and 2.1% N respectively). The ryegrass treatment, which also accumulated a high average DM yield (6200 kg.DM.ha-1), contained the lowest average N concentration of only 1.1% N. Sweet corn N accumulation at harvest was also significantly influenced by green manure treatments. At both sites, ryegrass significantly reduced sweet corn N accumulation compared with all other treatments, being 44% and 36% lower than control treatment value of 117 kg.N.ha-1. At Site-A, the lupin, mustard/lupin and mustard treatment effects on sweet corn N accumulation were not different from that of the control treatment at final harvest. However, at Site-B the lupin and mustard/lupin mix treatments did produce sweet corn N accumulation levels significantly higher than the control treatment; being 21% and 18% higher than the control value of 102 kg.N.ha-1, respectively. Compared to the control treatment sweet corn yield (17.3 t ha-1 averaged over both sites), none of the four green manure treatments improved sweet corn yield even though the lupin and mustard/lupin mix treatments both increased soil N availability and sweet corn N accumulation. Soil moisture limitations probably restricted yield potentials. However, the ryegrass treatment detrimentally affected sweet corn yields at both sites. When compared to the control treatment reductions of 64% and 48% at Site-A and Site-B, respectively, were measured. Soil mineral N (0-150 mm) tested early in the sweet corn growing season gave a better relationship with sweet corn N accumulation and yield compared with the incubation tests used. Short-term soil incubation tests, conducted under aerobic and anaerobic conditions, were not useful as indicators of net N mineralisation as they did not relate well to actual soil N mineralisation or crop response. Although both the lupin and the mustard/lupin mix treatments had similar effects on soil N availability and sweet corn N accumulation, of the two the lupin treatment achieved a higher level of estimated N fixation. On average the estimated N fixation in the lupin treatment (98 kg N ha-1 averaged over both sites) was higher than N losses in harvested sweet corn ears (77 kg N ha-1 averaged over both sites). This positive N balance would help compensate for other possible N losses from the soil-plant system (ie. ammonia volatilisation or nitrate leaching). Overall, the lupin green manure treatment appears be the best crop in terms of improving short-term N availability for the subsequent sweet corn crop and for maintaining an N balance in the soil-plant system. But ultimately, the benefit of lupin as a green manure crop will also depend on environmental conditions and management practices

Understanding the entanglement entropy and spectra of 2D quantum systems through arrays of coupled 1D chains

We describe an algorithm for studying the entanglement entropy and spectrum of 2D systems, as a coupled array of $N$ one dimensional chains in their continuum limit. Using the algorithm to study the quantum Ising model in 2D, (both in its disordered phase and near criticality) we confirm the existence of an area law for the entanglement entropy and show that near criticality there is an additive piece scaling as $c_{eff}\log (N)/6$ with $c_{eff} \approx 1$. \textcolor{black}{Studying the entanglement spectrum, we show that entanglement gap scaling can be used to detect the critical point of the 2D model. When short range (area law) entanglement dominates we find (numerically and perturbatively) that this spectrum reflects the energy spectrum of a single quantum Ising chain.Comment: 8 pages (4 + supplementary material). 10 figure

On Non-Squashing Partitions

A partition n = p_1 + p_2 + ... + p_k with 1 <= p_1 <= p_2 <= ... <= p_k is called non-squashing if p_1 + ... + p_j <= p_{j+1} for 1 <= j <= k-1. Hirschhorn and Sellers showed that the number of non-squashing partitions of n is equal to the number of binary partitions of n. Here we exhibit an explicit bijection between the two families, and determine the number of non-squashing partitions with distinct parts, with a specified number of parts, or with a specified maximal part. We use the results to solve a certain box-stacking problem.Comment: 15 pages, 2 fig

Unimodular graded Poisson Hopf algebras

Let $A$ be a Poisson Hopf algebra over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero. If $A$ is finitely generated and connected graded as an algebra and its Poisson bracket is homogeneous of degree $d \geq 0$, then $A$ is unimodular; that is, the modular derivation of $A$ is zero. This is a Poisson analogue of a recent result concerning Hopf algebras which are connected graded as algebras.Comment: 14 pages; preliminary version, comments welcom

Sample positioning in neutron diffraction experiments using a multi-material fiducial marker

An alternative sample positioning method is reported for use in conjunction with sample positioning and experiment planning software systems deployed on some neutron diffraction strain scanners. In this approach, the spherical fiducial markers and location trackers used with optical metrology hardware are replaced with a specifically designed multi-material fiducial marker that requires one diffraction measurement. In a blind setting, the marker position can be determined within an accuracy of ±164 µm with respect to the instrument gauge volume. The scheme is based on a pre-determined relationship that links the diffracted peak intensity to the absolute positioning of the fiducial marker with respect to the instrument gauge volume. Two methods for establishing the linking relationship are presented, respectively based on fitting multi-dimensional quadratic functions and a cross-correlation artificial neural network